The following article was published in The Toronto Star on Monday October 23 2006

Jamil Dar, 62: Doctor founded mosque - Michele Henry Staff Reporter

Dr. Jamil Dar once raised almost $1 million in a single night to help build one of Canada's largest mosques. Taking the podium at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser in 1991, he persuaded most of the diners to open their wallets yet again. Citing passages from the Qur'an about how giving in this world ensures prosperity in the next, he appealed to the crowd of Muslims before him — many recent immigrants — and asked for their help in building one place in Toronto, where all members of the community could gather and pray.

Dar died suddenly Oct. 9 after suffering a brain aneurysm, relatives said. He was 62.

More than 1,000 of his friends, family members and former patients filled the sanctuary of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto last week, spilling into hallways and crowding into various overflow rooms. All came to pay respect to the devout Muslim, skilled orator and compassionate doctor in the same mosque he helped found — the one he fought tirelessly to build that night nearly 15 years ago.

"He was not only a fine man, but a great man," said Mohammad Alam, president of the foundation, during the brief funeral service. "He was a true leader."

After the congregation finished kneeling and bowing their heads to the floor in prayer, their silence turned to chatter about Dar, a former president of the mosque, as they headed to the interment.

"This is very difficult for the community because he was such a strong personality," Alam said, as congregants went outside. "He was a beacon of the community and he was there whenever anyone called him."

Despite running a busy medical clinic in Richmond Hill, where he worked as a pediatrician and allergist, Dar was a constant presence in the mosque. Calling his friend of 28 years principled and accountable, Ashraf Khan said Dar was an indispensable part of local Muslim daily life. "He really looked after everything," Khan said. "He was always cheerful and helpful, especially when he was in the mosque."

After moving to Toronto to practice medicine in 1983 — he moved in 1972 to Montreal from Uganda, where he earned a medical degree — Dar helped found the foundation's Islamic centre. Fighting to unify the Muslim community, he saw the development of the centre from its first meagre home on Nugget Ave. in Scarborough to its current, impressive dwelling a short distance away. Dar was in the middle of fundraising to help build another mosque in Richmond Hill, where he lived with his wife and teenage children, when he died.

Hanif Nori, Dar's son-in-law, said he remembers how excited he was as a child to have the chance to pray in such a grand space with so many Muslims — such a thing was virtually unheard of in Canada at the time. "It was like a dream," the 29-year-old said.

Born in Kenya in 1944 to Sunni Muslim parents, Dar was the only boy in a family of eight girls. He met his wife Dr. Shahnaz Dar in 1974 on a trip back home. He died a day before his 30th wedding anniversary.

Grieving with her mother and three siblings, Seema Dar believes many of her father's good deeds were performed out of love for her mother. "All the community work he did, he wanted to make himself a better person for her," she said, describing her father as a pious, humble man who always put his family first and focused on making life better for others.